Textual Reflexions

8/10/2008

Automatic database updates

Filed under: Packrat — Piotr P. Karwasz @ 9:19 am

Since the release of version 1.0-beta of the script, the availability of new cards in the database depended on my daily manual updates. As I begun to have less and less time to dedicate to the script and was away many weekends in a row, these updates became quite rare.

You will be happy to hear that from now on the updates to the script are strictly linked to the updates of the Python script runs every hour on my server (in the first minute of each hour) and looks for information on new cards and collections.

Isaac and Pedro also developed scripts (in Perl and /bin/sh & co. respectively) to fetch informations from the wiki and transform them into the cards database format. I would like to thank them both for their dedication to this script (and the tips I found in their scripts :-)).

So if you need to add a card to the database, add it to the Wiki and wait until the next update. If a new card is introduced with a spelling error in the card image’s name, the script will still have problems. Report the misspelled cards (those found in Tools > GreaseMonkey > Commands > Show unknown cards e.g.) on my blog as usual.

37 Comments »

  1. There is now a new packrat. I don’t know if you’re planning on making a script to collect popups and credits, but I thought I’d let you know that the whole game has been changed, and none of the script seems to work with it.

    Comment by Sarah — 15/10/2008 @ 12:22 am

  2. I need to find out how to unistall this script please. It doesn’t work with new packrat and is proving to be a real pain in my (bleep) as I try to figure it out. I don’t have monkey face to click on on my computer so I can’t do that simple fix. I don’t know how to search anymore… please help

    Comment by lisakay — 15/10/2008 @ 2:04 am

  3. Lisa, go to Tools > Greasemonkey > Manage User Scripts, then select Packrat Autoclicker and click uninstall. That *should* do it. I can’t even figure out the new packrat anyway. It’s no fun without the stealing. And I lost my levels that I worked reeeally hard to get to. Oh well

    Comment by Sarah — 15/10/2008 @ 3:24 am

  4. @lisakay Tools > Greasemonkey > Manage User Scripts

    From there you want to highlight the script you want to disable and deselect the checkbox that says ‘enabled’–it’s in the bottom left corner. Then hit the close button and you should be gravy.

    Keep in mind I’m writing these instructions from FF3, but it should be the same in earlier releases, or close enough to the same.

    hth…shiny

    Comment by shinylib — 15/10/2008 @ 3:25 am

  5. Piotr, are there any plans to release a newer version of the script to handle the new packrat. They changed so much in this that it seems like the script might almost need to be rewritten from the ground up, but with the new draw cards, it’s just as much a grind as it was before, and I for one would prefer to automate the grinding aspects :/

    Comment by Joseph — 17/10/2008 @ 4:18 am

  6. Your script was awesome and such great work. Did way more than I could ever have hoped. I am just learning greasemonkey and the language but as I am playing with things I seem to be stuck. I am just trying to get the script to pick up a credit when it displays on the page and wonder if you could tell me what is missing from this code?

    var credit = document.getElementsByClassName(’free-credits-amount’);
    for (var i = 0; i < credit.length; i++) {
    var evt = document.createEvent(’MouseEvents’);
    evt.initEvent(’mousedown’, true, true);
    }

    Do you use anything in particular to debug your scripts? Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks again!
    Trav

    Comment by Trav — 17/10/2008 @ 7:00 am

  7. I managed to figure it out on my own. Thanks!

    Comment by Trav — 17/10/2008 @ 11:40 pm

  8. Trav, you have the auto working on the new packrat?? Any clues that you could give the rest of us to get it working again. I love the game but with everyday life I just don’t have the time to spend surfing for credits.

    Comment by lee — 18/10/2008 @ 1:23 am

  9. Yes, anything you can get working would be great. If I could just tell it to go from friend to friend picking up bonus draws, it would be worth it. No wonder they didn’t mind having the script around… they knew it would be worthless when the new game came out.

    Comment by Donna — 18/10/2008 @ 10:06 pm

  10. About the new PackRat layout:

    I will look into the new layout in the next weeks, but I can’t promise anything, since it takes way too much time and I don’t have any.

    Comment by Piotr P. Karwasz — 19/10/2008 @ 10:52 pm

  11. Dear Mr. Karwasz,

    I’ve looked at the code of the script, and I’m very impressed at the amount of work you put into it. Therefore, making huge changes to adopt the new PackRat would require a lot of time and efforts, and I hope you take your time for your necessary work first before working on this script.

    Meanwhile, I want to give some suggestions to the new script, if you would ever make it ^^

    Suggestions:
    1. Option to pick up draws, if any one of face up cards is in the personalized list, then pick it. Otherwise, draw a random face down cards, check with the personalized list or in ticked cards list and either keep it or mark it as drop card.

    2. Now the swap feature is very much alike the steal system before, which is based on ratio of success. So with some modifies, the steal function might work again :P

    3. The grinding system is unnecessary now, since there is no level, and we won’t get experience by swapping. Instead, we could go a long way ;) When slots available, get the required cards and combine to make a new one (which should be the one we don’t need), then swap with credit slot from friends, and repeat. Allowance for different recipes would be nice, since we are not always get the materials fast if we strictly follow one recipe. This ways we get experience, and combined cards are widely available for others to pick up.

    Comment by Esente — 21/10/2008 @ 8:50 am

  12. I think it would be easiest if we went back to the beginning - start with just a basic program that collected credits for now - and then slowly add to it as time permits…just my thought

    Comment by jimmy — 21/10/2008 @ 6:47 pm

  13. If there was something that just picked up draws - I would be soooo happy. It’s a pain to get new cards now that they don’t give draws with vaulted sets anymore. Booo hoo!

    Comment by Amy — 23/10/2008 @ 2:36 pm

  14. I agree that if it were at least simple enough to pick up credits and draws it would be great. And then if you have time and interest you could start incorporating the other features you worked so hard on. When I get some spare money I’ll make sure to donate some to you for everything you’ve done!

    Comment by Steve — 23/10/2008 @ 10:44 pm

  15. I’d be really happy w/ something that picked up credits and draws, but I also loved the feature that moved the cards on my “shopping list” the the beginning of the stores and friends packs so I always noticed them.

    whatever you decide to do, thanks for everything you’ve done so far!

    Comment by Anonymous — 25/10/2008 @ 4:10 pm

  16. Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the work you did on the original version. It’s a shame the devs made you do all that work to make the script less taxing, then to turn around and release a whole new version. Kind of a jerky move to me. I don’t need all the bells and whistles though, just a credit and draw collector.

    Comment by Amy — 27/10/2008 @ 4:13 am

  17. I’m so happy to see you all cheaters stuck. :D

    Comment by Name — 27/10/2008 @ 3:48 pm

  18. I am sure there are people who abuse this app, but for the most part people just use it to pick up a few credits and a new card without having to spend all day on packrat. Not everyone is able to log in each day and spend hours pick-up credits.

    Comment by Anonymous — 28/10/2008 @ 4:50 am

  19. Error in module ‘card’ on line 169: div is undefined
    Error in module ‘collection’ on line 1012: div is undefined

    Oops, something went wrong

    We have been notified of the problem. Thanks for your patience.

    I am getting this error from packrat. Please help. Thanks.

    Comment by Andy — 30/10/2008 @ 4:46 pm

  20. Andy, those errors have nothing to do with the script. Those are errors only packrat can fix.

    Comment by Sarah — 31/10/2008 @ 4:21 am

  21. But whenever I use the GreaseMonkey. the error will pop out in the script preference box. The website will appear:

    Oops, something went wrong

    We have been notified of the problem. Thanks for your patience.

    But when I closed the GreaseMonkey. It back to normal. I can’t use it. I don’t know what wrong with it?

    Comment by Andy — 31/10/2008 @ 2:03 pm

  22. The script doesn’t work with the new version. The script is trying to check your vault, but they’ve changed the webaddress to the vault, so it sends you to that page.

    Comment by Sarah — 1/11/2008 @ 10:21 pm

  23. That means I cannot use it for packrat anymore? Hope to see new version to help us to get the cards, I just want to have more credits and buy the cards I wanted. But thanks anyways.

    Comment by andy — 3/11/2008 @ 4:05 pm

  24. Yes, it means it’s not working anymore. Piotr has said he’s not sure if he’ll make a new one yet.

    Comment by Sarah — 4/11/2008 @ 12:16 am

  25. From http://apps.facebook.com/packrat/rules:

    Rule Two: Do Not Use Scripts to Automate Your Gameplay

    Yes, we know… it’s possible to set up a browser script to play the game for you by collecting credits and camping on cards. We think this is lame. Like duplicate accounts, scripting PackRat is against Facebook’s Terms, our Terms, and yes… it’s also against the Spirit of the Game. And if you mess with the Spirit of the Game, lemme tell you what the Spirit is gonna do (and we’re being very serious here):
    What Happens When You Break the Rules

    If we find that you are using Greasemonkey Scripts, Gorillamonkey Scripts or any other form of Primate to automate your PackRat experience — or if you are maintaining more than one PackRat account — or, heaven forbid, both — the Spirit of the Game is going to smack your lame, cheating Pack into oblivion in one or more of the following ways:

    1. We will reduce your Credit count to Zero.
    2. We will reduce your Ticket count to Zero (yes, we can do this.)
    3. We will temporarily ban you from playing PackRat.
    4. We will permanently ban you from playing PackRat.
    5. We will turn over your account ID to Facebook to have your account deleted (yes, we can do this too).

    So please don’t screw with the Spirit of the Game. We’re not trying to ruin anyone’s fun, we simply need to keep the game fair and balanced, like CNN.

    Comment by Name — 11/11/2008 @ 12:15 am

  26. That’s not news.

    Comment by Sarah — 11/11/2008 @ 1:38 am

  27. Ha! “Keep the game fair & balanced”….

    as long as you want to pay money for tickets to BUY cards, with cash, nothing about PackRat feels like a level playing field. The Spirit of the Game is roasting on a spit over open coals…..

    Comment by Jen — 13/11/2008 @ 3:22 pm

  28. Just an update: I don’t think I’ll have time to update the script in the future, too much real world work.

    Comment by Piotr P. Karwasz — 13/11/2008 @ 7:56 pm

  29. I just wanted to say thank you for the help you did provide.
    I realize now that this does go against the spirit of the game and will support your decision to no longer update the code.

    It has helped in the past and I truly appreciate the effort you went to, to keep up with the game
    thank you

    Comment by Benji — 30/11/2008 @ 10:00 pm

  30. Can’t say that I blame you - especially since they insist on revamping the game play and rules every five minutes.

    Comment by Amy — 9/12/2008 @ 2:50 am

  31. I miss autoclicker :-( The scrolling through the rats with the latest new version of packrat is soooo tedious.

    Comment by Stacey — 24/1/2009 @ 3:13 am

  32. anyone know of another program like this? I really miss the extra help it gives, just dont have the time to spend all day playing packrat.

    Comment by Anonymous — 30/1/2009 @ 5:06 am

  33. If you ever do get time to create an update, one that just collects coins and does nothing else would still be valuable.

    Comment by Kriis — 1/3/2009 @ 9:43 pm

  34. i loved loved loved this auto! not for buying cards, just for collecting those much needed credits.
    if you could ever do that again it would be amazing! I would be sure to donate to you, just like i know many others would as well.

    Like Kris said abover, just something for coins would be great. I do enjoy hunting for the cards, i just find it hard to have the time to hunt for the credits too.

    Comment by lee — 3/3/2009 @ 8:22 pm

  35. I was wondering if you can tell me which tools you used to deconstruct the page. Maybe I can figure out how to write the script :)

    Comment by Wondering — 4/4/2009 @ 2:12 am

  36. Has any1 found some script or bot or macro that can be used to collect credits? I really dont mind not having any of the other features this script had, but collecting credits would save a lot of time.

    Comment by =] — 15/9/2009 @ 7:26 am

  37. I havent yet, but i would really love it!!!
    I just dont have the time to be sitting here flipping,
    I don’t know why the Packrat app wont devolope an auto, like some other games do on facebook. We could pay a number of credits to be aboe to use it the first time.

    Comment by Anonymous — 13/11/2009 @ 4:01 am

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